Wire-to-wire win gives Poston spot in the British Open

J.T. Poston completed a wire-to-wire victory Sunday in the John Deere Classic for his second PGA Tour title and a spot in the British Open.

Three strokes ahead entering the day at TPC Deere Run, Poston closed with a 2-under 69 for a threestroke margin over fellow British Open qualifiers Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Emiliano Grillo.

“It is hard,” Poston said. “Wire-to-wire, having the lead for so long that it's just hard not to think about that fine line all week. I tried to stick to the game plan.”

Poston finished at 21-under 263. He opened with rounds of 62, 65 and 67.

The British Open is July 14-17 at the Old Course at St. Andrews.

• Adrian Meronk became Poland's first winner on the DP World Tour, using a superb closing stretch at Mount Juliet for a 6-under 66 and a three-shot victory in the Irish Open.

Meronk was one shot behind Ryan Fox with four holes remaining when he went birdie-birdie-eagle to give himself room for error on the tough closing hole. He made par and walked off the 18th green soaked in a champagne celebration.

Meronk, who finished at 20-under 268, Fox (64) and Thriston Lawrence (67) already were exempt for the British Open. The three spots available from the Irish Open went to American John Catlin, David Law and Fabrizio Zanotti. They all finished on 273.

NHL

Jets hire Bowness as their new head coach

The Winnipeg Jets announced the hiring of Rick Bowness as their head coach after several days of speculation.

The 67-year-old Bowness, who becomes the team's eighth head coach in franchise history and third since the club's relocation to Winnipeg, began his coaching career with the Jets, culminating in 28 games running the bench to close the 1988–89 season. The former right wing also ended his NHL playing career with Winnipeg in the 1982 playoffs.

Bowness spent most of the past three NHL seasons coaching Dallas, leading led the Stars to the 2020 Stanley Cup Final. He led the Stars to an 89-62-25 record in the regular season.

• The Lightning sent stalwart defenseman Ryan McDonagh to the Nashville Predators for younger defenseman Philippe Myers and forward prospect Grant Mismash, clearing significant salary cap space to make more moves this offseason and setting up Tampa Bay to keep younger core players around for the long term. To do so, McDonagh had to waive his no-trade clause.

MOTORSPORTS

Reddick races to first NASCAR Cup win

Tyler Reddick raced to his first NASCAR Cup victory, continuing the seasonlong trend of first-time winners on road courses.

Each of the first three road-course races this year has had a first-time winner, with Reddick breaking through at Road America after Ross Chastain won at the Circuit of the Americas and Daniel Suárez at Sonoma.

The Richard Childress Racing driver won by 3.304 seconds over defending champ Chase Elliott. All the other drivers were more than 21 seconds behind Reddick.

Kyle Larson was third, followed by Chastain and Suárez.

• Scott McLaughlin picked up his second career IndyCar victory, which may go down as one of the most special wins of his career.

The New Zealander won at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with his nervous parents watching from pit lane. McLaughlin had not seen his family in 31 months because of the pandemic, but his parents finally were able to leave New Zealand in May to attend the Indianapolis 500.

Wayne and Diane McLaughlin booked their trip to maximize their visas and planned nine IndyCar races on their tour of the United States. It took four to see their only son drive his Team Penske entry to victory lane.

IndyCar champion Alex Palou finished second and Will Power had a brilliant run to put a second Penske driver on the podium.

• Carlos Sainz Jr. won his first career Formula One race with a victory at the British Grand Prix — the most dramatic race so far this season. It began with a frightening first-lap crash and ended with intense wheel-to-wheel battles for the podium positions.

Sergio Pérez was second and Lewis Hamilton was third.

The race was stopped on the opening lap because of a frightening multi-car crash that sent Guanyu Zhou's car upside-down into a fence. He was treated at the medical center and Alexander Albon was flown to a hospital for an evaluation after hitting a wall in the same incident.

Adesanya, Volkanovski keep their UFC titles

Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski scored dominant unanimous decision victories and retained their UFC titles late Saturday at UFC 276.

Adesanya did a masterful job of controlling the distance to evade the punching power of Jared Cannonier, the 32-year-old Nigerian staying out of range before darting in to score with a dizzying variety of strikes across the five five-minute rounds to keep the middleweight belt.

Volkanovski used his speed and a consistent stinging jab to score a convincing victory over Max Holloway, keeping his featherweight title before suggesting a move up to lightweight.

Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone called time on his career after losing to Jim Miller via second-round submission in his 55th pro fight.

Groenewegen wins Tour de France stage

Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen overtook Wout van Aert and Peter Sagan at the line to win the third stage of the Tour de France in a photo finish while Van Aert extended his overall lead.

Groenewegen got behind record seven-time Tour sprint champion Sagan's wheel when he was battling with Van Aert, and found a gap to squeeze through and nudge his wheel over the line for his fifth Tour stage win.

Van Aert picked up a sixsecond bonus and is now seven seconds ahead of Yves Lampaert and 14 ahead of two-time defending champ Tadej Pogacar.

Bulls to add Dragic

The Chicago Bulls and guard Goran Dragic have agreed to a one-year, $2.9 million contract, according to a source. Free-agent deals can't be officially announced until Wednesday.

The 36-year-old Dragic has averaged 13.7 points and shot 36.2% on 3-pointers over 14 seasons with Phoenix, Houston, Miami, Toronto and Brooklyn.

• The Boston Celtics resigned forward Sam Hauser to a three-year contract.